Re: KKD BOSTQ?
Not five months later, the question actually arises.
Will Krispy Kreme file for bankruptcy?
Company needs more money just when it's making less
By Herb Greenberg, CBS MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 5:59 PM ET Jan. 19, 2005
SAN DIEGO (CBS.MW) -- Krispy Kreme's board did the right thing in giving the boot to CEO Scott Livengood. As has been detailed in this column over the past two years, Livengood egregiously mismanaged the company with questionable insider dealings and a strategy that was often one step beyond botched.
Now comes his replacement, Stephen Cooper, whose turnaround reputation -- earned restructuring the likes of Enron (ENRNQ: news, chart, profile) , Laidlaw (LI: news, chart, profile) and Federated (FD: news, chart, profile) -- gives him status as a legend of sorts in the trade.
But here Cooper is, in his first day on the job, telling Floyd Norris of The New York Times that despite having been on the Krispy Kreme (KKD: news, chart, profile) payroll for just eight hours, "it looks to me that the company has a reasonable level of free cash flow, so I see no reason why this should be a bankruptcy candidate."
Talk about potentially irresponsible statements that could come back and smack you in the face!
There's no way Cooper -- or anybody, for that matter -- can say at this point with certainty that Krispy Kreme can avoid bankruptcy. He may turn out to be right, but there are simply too many examples of well-intentioned executives saying one thing when they walk into a troubled company, only to find more than they bargained for after turning over one too many stones.
Full article at cbs.marketwatch.com |
